I think [a typeface is] more than one thing. I haven’t got it totally figured out and I probably never will, which is good. I think it can be quite a few things all at once but mainly it’s a human creation, it’s a little piece of somebody’s soul, it’s functional, but it mainly acts as a material.
It’s something that you will use to make something else. And when you use it to make something else, it’s in that product. Whereas if you use a hammer to bang in a nail as a tool, you can’t see the hammer in the final building, maybe traces of it but not the hammer itself. While the typeface becomes a part of the new thing, it’s like an ingredient in a dish.
![A hand flashes the V for Victory sign](https://cdn.statically.io/img/nicksimson.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/nsmsn-v-yellow-300x300.png)
This is the personal website of Nick Simson, who writes about books, websites, and other stuff.
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A typeface is more than a tool
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job searching
Likes Job searching in 2024 is horribly broken by .
I’m trying to be gentle and helpful to all my pals who are looking for work right now. Because it is tough out there. Leave it to a network engineer to find all the security and system failures with the current job sites and hiring tools.
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send a friend a webmention day
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A Quote, № 1
We work to become, not to acquire.
Elbert Hubbard -
adventures in attention
Likes How To Do Nothing Course by .
I find myself thinking about Jenny Odell’s book often. Would love to audit this course based on her work.
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(No title)
this is a quick test from an ActivityPub-enabled WordPress site.
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now now now
Made a couple updates to my /now page.
This thing is now powered by several widgets pulling in stuff automatically, plus some blocks of text I update manually.
From top to bottom:
- My latest status, powered by status.lol.
(daily-ish?) - What I’m up to these days, powered by the block editor.
(seasonally) - My current pile of books, powered by Literal.
(monthly) - Latest tracks from Last.fm, powered by this pretty good Vercel app.
(daily) - The current weather in Albuquerque, powered by the Location Weather plugin (which is itself powered by the Open Weather Map API).
(hourly)
I signed up for a Letterboxd account recently, and I might add a widget for that next if I can find a good one. But I don’t watch a lot of movies these days, so I don’t know how appropriate it is for my /now page.
I like to think of a now page as a snapshot in time, and mine is a mix of things that are updated hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, or on an ongoing basis.
If I were a better programmer this would all be APIs, not this fragile mix of third-party widgets. What’s nice is that none of this third-party stuff contains ad trackers or cookies (as best as I can tell).
- My latest status, powered by status.lol.
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obligatory note on the upcoming election
Well yesterday morning I blogged about how I no longer found following politics interesting and entertaining, so I guess you’re welcome, America.
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make it raw
Likes Your blog is a vulnerability. by .
Wow, plenty of stuff to think about here.
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Comfort watch ⚾
I used to find it interesting and entertaining to follow politics. Then… that kind of stopped being fun. Now I follow baseball.
After reading Susan’s note and Gregory’s post about streaming baseball last year, I decided to get the MLB At Bat subscription, which lets me listen to every single regular season MLB radio broadcast. I think it costs around 30 dollars. I actually listen to baseball games on the radio almost every day of the week. When the Amazin’ New York Mets are playing in the MLB.tv Free Game of the Day, I tune in to that (I’ll be watching the Mets play the Braves on Sunday, 7/28).
I agree with almost every part of Linda’s endorsement, except for the Phillies section. If you want to jump on a bandwagon because a writer at NPR convinced you, go for it. But 162 3-4 hour games each year is a huge commitment. If you don’t already have a MLB team to follow, you should make your own decision. Here are a few different strategies for picking a baseball team:
- Read up on all 30 clubs and their histories. Wikipedia is great for this. You’re making a huge time commitment anyway. Go on the subreddits of teams you think you want to follow and see what those fans are really like.
- Go with the team of a close friend or beloved family member. This will give you something to watch together and something new to make your relationship closer.
- Pick a team based on a city or place you have an affinity for. It could be somewhere you grew up, dreamed of living, or love to visit. The great thing about this: once you’re in town during the summer, you can actually go to the game!
- Make sure you can actually watch some games. Blackouts are a thing, and Bally Sports/Diamond Sports really screwed over thousands of fans in local television markets recently. I really hope this issue gets fixed, for the sake of the fans and the future of the game itself.
- I personally think the National League clubs (Dodgers, Giants, Pirates, Padres, Brewers, etc.) are more fun overall. I’ll make an exception for the Minnesota Twins, who celebrate a night honoring Prince every year.
- The New York Yankees are like the Evil Empire from Star Wars. No beards; no mascots; no alternate uniforms, really. I’m not saying you shouldn’t pick the Yankees; these are just things you should keep in mind in case you happen to like fun.
- Look up some Hall of Famers. Maybe you identify with a single player more than a team. Who did they play for? Whose hat are they wearing on the plaque? If you adore Ken Griffey Jr., you should probably be a Mariners fan.
Let’s Go Mets! ⚾
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grid areas
Bookmarked CSS Grid Areas by .
Another absolute banger by Ahmad. I don’t know how he does it.
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SaFaWD
Likes Send a Friend a Webmention Day by .
July 30 is the International Day of Friendship, but folks in the indie web celebrate by sending their friends a webmention.
With some troubleshooting help from David, you can now send a generic webmention to nicksimson.com, and it will show up (probably after some comment moderation) on my Mentions page.
Please, keep it friendly.
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Thanks, David!
No need to apologize, David! Thank you for taking the time to troubleshoot this with me this week. I’m sure the next plugin update will help a lot more users out there.